THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
WHITEY FORD 1928-2020
Beloved Bombers pitcher won most games in Yankees history
Whitey Ford’s exploits as a Yankee hero are memories now, and the people who knew him when he was a child in Queens are gone — but a bit of his boyhood remains.
It’s invisible from the sidewalk, in back of the five-story brick apartment building with a recessed entrance and marble steps on 34th St. where he grew up, a few blocks from the Broadway N/W elevated station in Astoria.
Think of Whitey, a boy, playing catch back in the long rear yard — the ball going back and forth, every toss bringing him closer to his future as a Hall of Famer and the Yankees’ winningest pitcher.
“My mother knew him,” said Eileen Moran, 76, who has lived in the building all her life.
“She moved in as a newlywed in the 1930s, and from the time he could walk he was carrying around a baseball bat.”
“He was a great pitcher,” said Moran. “That’s why we’re Yankees fans.”
Yankee fans in all five boroughs were united in sorrow over Ford’s death Friday — and full of respect for his accomplishments as a player.
“He meant everything to Yankee fans,” said Sal Irizarry, 48, a civilian patrol officer at Rockefeller Center who lives in the Bronx.
“Chairman of the board was a big position to fill, and he filled it,” Irizarry said as he came off a shift in Midtown. “On and off the field, Ford made people Yankees fans.”
“He could throw anything,” he said. “And he meant business when he took the mound.”
He was especially on fans’ minds as the Yankees battle for glory in another postseason.
“The Yankees are going to play harder than ever because they’ll be infused with his spirit,” said Lindsay Aamodt, 40, a yoga teacher and tech marketer from California who is originally from Connecticut.
She was shopping in Midtown with her 10-year-old son Che Aamodt. “We flew in all the way from California for the postseason,” she said. “Whitey’s positivity is going to carry them on for the rest of the season and into the championship.”
“Whitey Ford won six world championships and the most postseason games,” said Turron Dukes, 34, a security guard from Brooklyn, who visited the New York Yankees Clubhouse store in Midtown on Friday.
“He was a ten-time All Star,” Dukes said. “He was the career leader in most everything. What didn’t he win?”
“The real fans — anybody who knows and loves baseball — are saddened,” he said.
“Nobody’s going pass Whitey, especially in the post season,” he added. “Whitey Ford is locked in baseball law.”